Apple's new EarPods: The story of a teardown

The guys - and ladies - at iFixit snuck a peek inside Apple's new EarPods. On the outside they certainly look futuristic, but what lurks inside? We knew of only one way to find out.

We didn't assign a repairability score for the EarPods. Unfortunately, products like these earbuds are still of the throw-away kind. Repair is infeasible because sourcing parts is next to impossible, and it would be a tough sell to convince someone to take apart their EarPods — they're glued together, and will never be the same once taken apart.

- With such a tight fit between the two halves of the EarPods, simply pulling them apart wasn't an option. Enter the X-Acto blade. We don't normally cut open earbuds, but when we do, we prefer X-Acto #11 blades.
- Like most speakers, the EarPod speakers consist of a diaphragm/cone, a voice coil, a permanent magnet, and a cabinet. The voice coil is supported by a composite diaphragm made of a paper cone and a polymer surround. This is the first iteration of Apple headphones to use paper cones rather than all plastic.
- Apple had durability in mind with the new EarPods. The new remote design includes larger cable wrapping on both ends to reduce strain on the wires.

- To make the new EarPods more resistant to water and sweat damage, Apple's designers removed the external microphone grate.
- The microphone in the EarPods' remote bears the markings 2F17 045; we also uncovered another IC with the markings TI25ASGVI, which Chipworks believes to be an ADC, or a device used for volume-control duty.
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Source: Some more teardowns, images and more can be found here.